The Hindu Business Line : Grameen tricks to the rescue

The amazing story of a Bangladeshi woman who arrived in war-ravaged Kosovo to help seed the micro credit programme among women living on the edge of despair.

How can you do Grameen type of work with security? The very idea appeared preposterous, because our job is to motivate people and help them improve their lives step by step.

Jannat E. Quanine: Messenger of hope... and survival instincts. -- RASHEEDA BHAGAT

She went to Kosovo at a time, as Nobel Peace laureate and Grameen Bank Managing Director Muhammed Yunus puts it, "when there was no bank, no law and order machinery, no government and no country", with the mandate of setting up a Grameen model of micro credit.

The year was 1999 and the Italian government's Mission Arcebaleno had raised money to help the war-ravaged and displaced Kosovers to rebuild their lives. "They set apart $5 million and asked Prof Yunus if he could help establish a micro credit programme in Kosovo to help the women," recalls Jannat E. Quanine, Deputy General Manger and chief, International Programme, Grameen Bank.

When the daredevil woman was asked by Yunus and Grameen Trust Managing Director H.I. Latifee if she would go to the war-ravaged country to help its women, "I was very excited and when my husband and daughter, who was only nine then, told me to go, I took up the challenge," recalls Jannat.

But it was easier said than done; the first hurdle was travel as "even the airport had been bombed and was closed. But she made it to Pristina from Italy by a World Food Programme aircraft.

What she saw from the aircraft as it landed devastated her; "I could not see a single house that had escaped the bombing, fire or damage. There was no infrastructure, no roads, no communication. To travel from the UN landing centre to where we wanted to go, we had to take a man-made mountain track, which had been made after NATO intervention."

There was no hotel either but since Arcebaleno had been working in Kosovo for some time it had some space, "with one bathroom for 10 people. And there was no restaurant; one night we set out to find a restaurant but could find only rubble."

No encouragement

The first challenge was day-to-day survival in a region where there was "no water and no electricity to run the heating system; the temperature was minus 30 degree Celsius." To make matters worse "when we attended the meetings for international NGOs, the UNHCR did not give a single positive or encouraging message. Of course, it is their responsibility to narrate the scenario factually. They would always say: `Keep ready your passport, and some dollars and call this number if there is a conflict to board a plane and get out.' Also, they asked us: `You have come here to do micro credit, how will you go to the villages? Each and every home has arms and ammunition, it's really unsafe for you and maybe you need police security to do this kind of work."

With a chuckle the feisty Grameen executive, seated in her comfortable office at the Grameen headquarters in Dhaka, recalls: "Listening to them I thought it was ridiculous to do such work with security; how can you do Grameen type of work with security? The very idea appeared preposterous, because our job is to motivate people and help them improve their lives step by step. And you can't do such things with the help of security. But I listened to their advice knowing fully well I couldn't follow it."

So what did she do? How did she begin?

"Oh, I just had to use my experience; I've been with Grameen since its inception and had to fall back upon long years of experience and challenges we've faced in different countries while replicating the Grameen model, and used a few Grameen tricks!"

Each day brought a new problem and a new challenge and "I totally enjoyed meeting a new challenge in a peaceful and calm way in a violent and unstable country!"

The first challenge for the team — she had two managers and one accountant with her from Grameen — was that zero information was available about the place and people. The more basic problem was food. "The food was so different that it took me six months to get used to it. There was only paprika and vegetables like potatoes and tomatoes and more potatoes and more tomatoes," says Jannat. More distressing, no rice was available for a person whose staple diet was rice. "And no spices were available; no turmeric, no hot chillies, only paprika or sweet chillies that I'm not used to, and bread and cheese. There was no ginger and it took me six months to find some garlic."

What about meat?

"That was there but how do you cook meat without chillies and turmeric and spices such as black pepper and coriander seeds," she asks.

But Jannat adapted to the food, particularly paprika so well that "now in Dhaka I miss my paprika; we don't get that quality here... so soft, so big and so delicious." But then it took her six months to get used to paprika and the smell and taste of Turkish coffee... Till then she survived on bread!

Getting started

Even before she could get a decent office with a few tables and chairs — she had to later hunt down a carpenter and get him to make this basic furniture — Jannat's team set out on the mission of identifying women who could be organised into little groups, so crucial for any micro credit project. Not sure how to go about the task of buying a vehicle — "I had no idea what was a fair price and with KPMG being our auditors, I didn't want to make any mistakes because Grameen's reputation was at stake — she started out by renting a car. Here too thrift was practised and she chose a driver who knew "broken English and could also act as our translator."

The next challenge was to find some homes where she could talk to the women. "But the trick is to get invited to their homes, and unless somebody knows and trusts you why will they invite you to their homes?" Here the driver-cum-translator helped by taking her to a village where he knew some people. Also, some of the schools had started working, having been rebuilt with Italian and Japanese aid and the schoolteachers, who were also playing the role of community leaders, helped in introducing the Grameen team to some women.

"We did extensive field trips, and slowly got the people's confidence. But when I visited their shattered homes, I was emotionally shattered. The houses had nothing and comprised just one small room. Most of the families had lost all their men — sons, husbands, fathers, brothers — killed in the war, displaced or put in jails in Serbia. The situation was so bad that even the toilet paper was on donation at that time. It was so terrible to see that human dignity can be destroyed in one day. She has a house, a business one day and the next day it is all gone with the blast of a single mine, or a bomb. It took me a few weeks to absorb this shock," says Jannat, adding that the horrendous situation only strengthened her resolve to do her utmost to help the war-ravaged women rebuild their lives.

Cautioning herself all the time to remember the Grameen mantra of respecting the culture and tradition of the place and people where they work, she set about the task of meeting women and preparing them to receive small loans. But initially "they refused to form a group just like the women of Zobra, the first village where Grameen had started its programme three decades ago! They found it difficult to believe us but we told them stories of Grameen borrowers in Bangladesh."

The men step in

But when the meetings began, "suddenly all the men turned up saying give us the money and we will do business. The women said `we can't use the money as we don't know how to do any business'." Once again it was the same old story of Zobra, where also the women had said: `Give the money to my husband. Why me, I don't know how to do business'.

With a deep sigh Jannat continues, "It is the same old story all over the world, the poor and vulnerable women who are thought fit only to bring up children and to cook, wash and clean."

But with patience and persistence she formed the first group and found again to her astonishment that just as in Zobra, here too the women wanted a loan to buy a cow! "They said our cows were either stolen or burnt. If we have a cow, we can sell the milk in the local market and buy food and repay your loan too!" A loan of 10,000 Deutsche Mark — the currency at that time — was given to buy a cow, and Jannat estimates that at least 85 per cent of the loans were for buying milch cows. Other loans were for tailoring and embroidery.

When asked if she was not afraid for her life, she says, "I'm fond of taking challenges and I wasn't scared for myself but I was scared for my colleagues, but I never ever told them this." Even guarding their car against theft was a challenge, and the Grameen team devised an ingenious method to rattle empty Coke tins at night to "make the robbers think that we were awake!"

Communication at first was virtually impossible and she received the first letter from her family after six months, with a UN worker delivering it to her over a distance of 100 km from Pristina! "At that place there was no telephone and to make a call to my family I had to drive for three hours over 100 km to Pristina!"

So when did she leave Kosovo?

"Oh, I never really left Kosovo; my heart is still there and I have a huge family there. I went alone and came back with several families and we are in touch over email. How can they forget someone who brought hope into their lives," is her passionate response. For the record, she stayed there for 42 months.

Present status

Jannat's labours have borne fruit and the micro credit programme in Kosovo has really taken off, working in four out of its five regions. Over 25 million euros have been disbursed to 5,000 women in 45 villages and the repayment rate is 100 per cent. Thanks to the WHO she got to visit Kosovo recently and was received with much warmth and love.

"The women have shifted from shelter to their own homes, from one cow to several cows and are using milking machines, which I had never seen in my life!"

And, did she get to eat paprika?

"Of course, every day, and I just loved it!"

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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